Nice to Know You
by Rinon Toros
Summary: Leon/Naomi. Spawned from my demented sense of humor. ^^; Naomi's relatives visit. Pointlessness ensues from there.


Title: Nice to Know You.

Rating: PG-13. Probably should be R due to the, uh, demoralizing stuff used, but.. eh. ^^;

Paring: Leon/Naomi. See, I love Brad 'n all, but I love Leon more. e.e;; He's just too.. too.. Adorable. 3

Notes: ; My muses are going crazy. So, the weird level may be a bit up there, but I'm not too sure. uu; WAH! Once more, this was kinda inspired by PallaPlease's newest installment of 'Wonderland.' ^^;; And TWO-MIX! *sobs* Always there to keep me awake for endless hours into the night with their dancy music!

Naomi has relatives over at the Flugel compound and the menacing mama of Naomi targets poor, poor Leon! Oo; I've always visualized her mom to be a potato-like, cranberry haired, small woman. ^^; Heeee~! Typical of me to visualize something so weird, ne? Ne?!

Maa! This is kinda, really, sorta like my Sickness fic. But it's 4 in the morning, I haven't had any sleep tonight and I needed to get this out or the muses were going to drive me insane! 

-                       -                       -                       -

This was weird. Really, really weird.

He kept his awkward smile up as his mind wandered -- probably due to his situation. Across from him, perched upon the plush and ironically, cranberry red couch, sat a woman much resembling his teammate. Only, possibly younger, and beside that woman, sat yet another, looking old, wrinkled and -- well, _old_. She kept shooting pointed glances at him, too, making the situation just so much better..

Beside him was his teammate. The entire cause of his current situation. She was bent over a blue bundle, cooing and tickling at the object, which was very unmistakably a baby. It was loudly gurgling and making rather obnoxious suckling noises in response to her.

"We haven't been properly introduced," The oldest of the females began slowly, now all out staring accusingly at him. "I am Naoko. Naomi's mother. Who are you?"

"Leon Tauros," He offered a weak smile. The woman was probably thinking he demoralized her daughter, or.. or _worse_! "Pleased to meet you."

"And, pray tell, why are you here?" The old woman pressed and _still_ stared. The daughter beside her was turning a shade of red, which matched her hair, making an inconspicuous attempt at hiding her face within the over-large sleeve of her shirt.

"Mom!" Naomi stared in disbelief at her parent before casting an apologetic smile at her teammate. He responded with a look that screamed either, 'Oh, my god! You are _sexy_!' or 'It's okay. Yep. A-okay!' Either way, his smile didn't falter and he evenly returned the stare of the woman, lacking accusations and malice, of course.

"I am Naomi's teammate," He responded cheerfully, urging himself to continue with what he piloted and how very good Naomi was at Zoid battles in vain. The woman cleared her throat and spoke in time to interrupt.

  
"Is that some kind of – of.. _slang_, for lover –" The woman's eyes were wide in horror, her mouth somewhat hanging slack; was this boy trying to demoralize _her_, the most pristine, true to her blood woman on the planet?!

  
"MOM!" Naomi interrupted with her uncharacteristic wail, startling the baby, which immediately began to loudly cry. Leon, never actually dealing with _any_ babies, except for Leena, who could be quieted with the offering of candy or cookies, frowned and shifted even more awkwardly, folding his hands tightly into his lap, now more than ever trying to focus intently upon the wall.

  
"Look at what you did, Naomi!" Naoko scolded and rose to her feet intimidatingly. Which truly wasn't very much so, as the woman hardly reached Leon's hips in stature and was plump enough to trip and possibly even _roll_; to top it off, she was wearing a brown kimono, making her look like an overgrown vegetable. "Give me her and go get the child some milk!"

"Yes, mom." Naomi grudgingly nodded and handed the child over, lightly elbowing Leon in the process. He blinked, looking away from the wall and at her. She narrowed her eyes briefly and then turned on her heel, proceeding away.

"Excuse me." He took the hint and got to his feet, bowing respectfully before hurrying after her.

  
"Don't you do anything funn –" Naoko cried in distress as she watched the two retreat to the hall, which would eventually lead to the kitchen.

  
"Mom!" The quiet sibling interjected and scowled. Naoko grumbled and quieted – for the time being, at least.

-           -            -            -

"Well?" She busied herself by digging the bottle out from the bag her sister had left in the kitchen not too long ago, a canister of formula coming out after that. She turned and looked expectantly at him.

  
"Well what?" He was sending cautious glances toward the door behind him. God, that woman creeped him out! Not even his _own_ elders looked at him that way, despite the fact that his grand mom frequently complained that he was destined for something so much better than Zoid battles.

  
"What do you think?" She inspected the instructions upon the side of the canister carefully, as to not add something wrong, or under or over measure the ingredients, so she wouldn't have to suffer through a public lecture.

   
"Your mom is frightening." He blurted, almost pouting, and rubbed at the back of his neck. "No offense."

"None taken." She grinned and winked, much to his distress, as he grew red in response. She turned her back on him and proceeded to measure out the ingredients, adding water, warming where necessary and waiting. "Mom does that often. She's kinda – ah, paranoid."

He nodded, lacking much else to say now that _that_ was out, "Cute kid, though."

"Yeah, isn't she?" She was glowing now, as though immensely proud of the child that wasn't even her own. "Kinda makes me wish I had one of my own.."

The way that sentence trailed off, with her tone and finishing sigh, made him just about fall over. Instead, he laughed nervously and hit himself where he previously rubbed, reminding him of just _who_ he was speaking to, of his situation and after all, she liked _Brad_. Not him. B-r-a-d. _You hear that, subconscious? **Brad**._ He could've sworn he heard something in the back of his head mutter a devious 'You _wish_!,' before realizing that he was standing there, looking quite stupid..

"Ah, so – uhm, just for reference, what's your sister's name?" He dropped his hand to his side and cringed inwardly, his subconscious laughing hysterically somewhere within the deepest crevice of his mind. _Oh, that sounded great, you idiot! Now she'll think you're going after her married sister!_ She shot him a curious look and he innocently smiled. "I'd feel incredibly stupid calling her 'Naomi's sister,' you know?"

"Natsuki." She looked mildly affected by the question, maybe a bit turned off, but nevertheless, returned his smile and shrugged, adding in rather pompously, "She probably wouldn't care; she idolizes me!"

Pity _he_ didn't have a sibling like that. He inwardly sighed at that thought; Leena was a bit busy toying with the emotions of both Bit Cloud _and_ Harry Champ, seeming unsure of which to turn to. He was quite sure Harry would win in the end, having known Leena longer, having shown more affection and just because Leena herself had hypothesized so.

"Well, let's go." She was beside him as his thoughts came to an end, looping an arm about his at the elbow and pulling him out the kitchen door. He stumbled, though caught himself, setting himself upright hastily, despite still being pulled. "Mom's probably pulling out her hair, thinking you're turning the kitchen into some love shack."

-           -            -            -

"You pilot." Naoko asked, incredulous, her round, plump face scrunched up in confusion and thought.

  
"Yes." Leon gave an earnest nod and took a moment to glance at the child cradled in Naomi's arms once more. "I pilot."

"And you.. _help_ Naomi.. _win_.. _battles_?" Naoko asked cryptically, glowering with a furious blush as she stared at the man. "Does she.. _pilot_, as well?"

"Yes. Honestly, we wouldn't be a team if she didn't." Leon smiled, oblivious to what the woman was actually insinuating. "And to spare you the extra question, _yes_, Naomi is a very good pilot!"

Naoko, in the midst of taking a sip of the tea, which came out of just about nowhere, choked, turned a strange shade of blue, and collapsed, landing on the ground at the feet of Natsuki. The three surrounding the old woman stared, Leon in disbelief and utter confusion, Naomi and Natsuki in a mixture of flustered amusement and frustration.

Naoko twitched and muttered something about demoralizing teens, still making an attempt at dislodging the tea from her throat.

  
"For God's sake, mother!" Naomi sobbed and hastily pushed the child into the unexpecting arms of Leon. As he blinked in confusion and held the child, she grabbed the potato-like mother and heaved her onto the couch. "You're _horrible_!"

"Perversion.." Naoko mumbled and rolled over onto her side. She was muttering random, related words, looking as though she might keel over right then and there. Leon, suddenly realizing what she was prodding for, was unsure whether to laugh or run away crying _and_ laughing. No matter, he still held the child who giggled so freely and gnawed toothlessly upon the nipple of the bottle, remaining nice and quiet as to keep from _any_ sort of outbursts.

"I'm _so_ sorry, Naomi," Natsuki apologized quietly as the two helped the mother upright, doing their best to snap the old woman back to reality.

He concentrated on the child as the two poked at the woman, prodded at the woman and apologized to him. He wasn't much older than Leena, so he never got to handle her as a child. _So.._ He looked down at it, brow rising faintly. _How.._ Unsure of how to continue that, he just stared. The baby gurgled merrily and with an audible 'pop' the bottle rolled from the mouth of the child. It was round, in a more 'cute' way than the old woman was, and.. well, _dirty_. It would develop into something beautiful, he was sure of that, but – _eh_. He decided that he couldn't comment on it much because it wasn't his own. Nothing spawned from another person could amount to anything that he could help produce. That's what it always boiled down to.

He snagged the bottle before it could roll off his lap and canted it mildly, holding it just a wee bit away from the mouth of the child. The child wailed happily and flailed its arms, smacking the bottle once just enough to make his hand slip. The nipple bobbed, though eventually found itself between the toothless gums of the baby once more.

  
After a few moments of begging and whining, Naoko came to reality and pointed angrily at Leon, tilting her head towards Natsuki as she commanded, "Natsuki! We're going and _not_ coming back until Naomi finds a more suitable boyfriend!"

"That is _so_ like you, mom," Naomi bit out angrily and folded her arms tightly over her stomach. Naoko turned her glare upon Naomi and _humph_-ed, watching as Natsuki carefully took the child from Leon, muttering her apologizes, before storming from the room. Natsuki bowed several times and continued voicing her apologies, before flanking her mother and hurrying out.

-           -            -            -

  
"_That_ was successful." Naomi grumped and slumped unceremoniously upon the armrest of the couch. Leon now felt incredibly idiotic for not realizing what the woman was speaking of earlier and had busied himself with flipping through a Zoid component magazine Leena had sent him a day before, taped to a note which read, '**WHAT TO BUY ME FOR MY BIRTHDAY!**'

  
"I didn't mean –" Leon looked away from the book as he spoke, eyes radiating his woe. He _may have_ just about fallen in love with the dearest Naomi, but it's not like he wanted her mom to be mad at her and think he was some kind of – well, _freak_.

"I know." She interrupted and kneaded the bridge of her nose in irritation; she had began Zoid battles to get away from her strangely psychotic parents, not to have them barge into her life at random times with her siblings who _happen_ to be toting a child! She enjoyed their company, yes, but after having _that_ occur in front of _him_, gaah, **no**.

  
"Does she really think.." He left the sentence hanging; pretty sure she would know the end of it.

  
"Yup." 

"Poor Brad." He murmured, mostly to himself and hastily diverted his attention back to the book. She heard him though, noticed his movements, caught just about _everything_.

"'Poor Brad'? Why?" Both eyebrows were raised in feigned confusion. She knew where _this_ was going..

  
"He – You – "

"Noo.." She argued and shook her head. Her expression had changed though; she looked a bit more irritated. "Maybe at one point, but.. after they got into class S – well, all of our plans were canceled and he decided to just stick to loving his Wolf."

  
"Oh." He cleared his throat quietly and flipped the page, pretending to be engrossed within the gaudy components, hiding his happiness about that. She wasn't stupid. She caught on and concealed her wide grin.

  
"Oh." She echoed and bit her lip. He was silent and she was, as well, until he felt the abrupt added weight upon him. She had pushed herself away from the armrest and now used _him_ as her object of support. She snuggled, nuzzled and yawned before settling down fully. "You're comfortable."

_Brad, eh?_ His subconscious taunted, a cackle following the thought. He remained still, blinking, blushing and absolutely unsure of what to do. _Speak, idiot. Or I'll do it for you!_ The subconscious taunted and more cackles followed. When he still lacked a response after a long moment of comfortable silence, he found himself nearly choking out a completely sincere, "I love you." He _would've_ liked to hear her response. Hell, he would've let his Shield Liger chew up his subconscious and then sleep on it if he could've heard the response.

Though, instead, he blacked out, due to a mixture of happiness and the abrupt flow of blood to his face.

( a/n: OI! *waves her arms crazily* ^^; DONE! Abrupt ending, yes? uu I have a feeling I wont get any good reviews for this, but no less! Now, I am off to sleep for a few days. *Poses and flashes the victory sign* OYASUMI! )


End file.
